motorbikes on B.O.A.T.S

M

mon

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Today met 6 off-roaders on BOAT that clearly have sign stating they shouldn't use it from end Oct through to beginning April, clearly making a bigger mess on an wet skiddy ground, and when informed they gave buse and roared off skiding everywhere , what can be done to prevent this?
 
It might depend if the notice has force of law (its only fairly recently these could be done), or is just a request notice for good practice. If the latter then nothing can be done other than highlighting with the authority responsible so they can consider whether they need to go for a legally enforceable temporary ban.

Bear in mind tho that a BOAT is meant legally to be open to all traffic, so a legal-force temporary restriction has to have very very strong justification. Also its a slippery slope thing, we get motorcycles banned on the basis of damage and horseriders are the next target on the same grounds as walkers dont like the hoofprints and mud). So personally I would rather put up with the mud, and know that acccess isnt being nibbled away, but it does depend I guess on how courteous the motorised users are. Take numberplates if they are a nuisance.

Is it formally a BOAT (normally shown by a red arrow on the sign, restricted byways with no motorised access normally have a plum coloured arrow)?
 
thanks check colours, but red circle with dates and motorbike sign, why should the make surfaces even more dangerous
 
Dates and motorbike sign sound official but it depends on whether they were put up on the basis of a legal order, if they werent then they mean nothing when it comes to the crunch. Who put the sign up, who is responsible for the byway, is there an order in place is what is needed to be known.

The damage they cause is a pain, I agree, dooooo bear in mind horses cause (lesser) damage, we can't specify them to stop banning things at the point that means the other user group is banned and we arent....tho hopefully thats where they would draw the line.

If the motorbikes are a regular problem they really should be upfront and try and get it formally changed to a Restricted byway (no motorised traffic at all) (used to be called a RUPP)
 
the problem is so many rupps/byways have been changed to a lower status so the few remaining
can be over used. Sadly we have very little spare land for recreation so all users need to be tolerent of each other and also resposible by not useing routes when the surface is going to suffer damage
this should include riders, cyclists and walkers too ...
 
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